Saturday, October 10, 2009

Not leaving on a jet plane

This is a non-prediction prediction article.

Tricky to have a stab at guessing the score when you've got hardly any chance of guessing of the team. All I can say with some confidence is, whoever they are, however they play, savour the sight of this Scotland team. You will never see the starting line up in the same squad again let alone in the same eleven.

Most of us had reservations about this trip. The players clearly agreed with an already weakened squad losing a further ten players since the weekend.

We've even managed to upset our hosts who had, apparently, expected a half way competitive friendly only to be told over the phone that George Burley was in fact going to be fielding the Bash Street Kids. Although this has given us a rather unfortunate reputation as the friends nobody wants to invite over dinner it will mean Japan play a weakened side. Every cloud and that.

I'd expect us to lose with a couple of decent performances from unsung players attempting to seize their unexpected opportunity.

It will leave us no closer to knowing about George Burley's long term prospects (although I'm sure a really bad result will have the rabid tabloids going off their heids) and no closer to knowing his first team.

We should, I suppose, spare a thought for the players who haven't been called up. If you weren't asked on the flight for this one then you're probably behind Denis Law in George Burley's plans.

A pointless game that will probably result in a pointless defeat. Lesson learned? None, except for a crash course in SFA incompetence for anybody who hasn't been paying attention for the last forty years.

Will I be watching the game having so often questioned the reasons for its very existence?

No. I will be manning the second hand book stall at a church sale. And that, dear reader, is a sentence I never thought I would write.